CABLE SHIP'S TASK

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 271, 15 November 1935, Page 6

CABLE SHIP'S TASK

TELEPHONE TO TASMANIA.

After a voyage from Woolwich, on the Thames, the ship Faraday, 5500 tons, recently reached Melbourne with the 200-mile Bass Strait wireless telephone cable on board. In addition, she carries underneath this cable a short eight-mile length to connect Freniantlc with Rottnest Island. The Faraday (save the "Melbourne Herald") is the specially-built cable ship for the worldfamoue firm of Siemens, which has built and laid most of the submarine cables of the world. As soon as the Postal Department had placed the contract, the construction of the cable was begun at Woolwich. This cable, now lying flaked down very carefully in the big tank hold of the Faraday, is tho most modern and longest cable of, Hβ type in the world. Built up, layer upon layer, from a eingle thread of copper, it has a diameter of 1J inches. Bymeans of the improved carrier system on a wide band of frequencies, the cable will carry simultaneously a high fidelity circuit for broadcasting purposes, eix telephone channels, and an indefinite number of telegraph channels. There is only one copper wire in use, the copper sheathing being used for the return circuit. The shore end of the cable will be laid at Foul Bay, which has been chosen because of the nice, soft, sandy bottom, and also because it is the nearest point to Sea Elephant Bay, on King Island, where the intermediate station will be established. From this point, the cable will emerge at a different angle, and bo laid in the direction of Perkins Bay, near Stanley, where the terminal etation in Tasmania is located. The laying of the cable will be a comparatively brief task, occupying, in fine weather and barring accidents and delays, no more than a week or ten days. Once the cable has been laid and all the splices at the various stations made, then the ship's personnel will begin the teste. Provided these are satisfactory the testing officers of the Postal Department will make independent tests before the cable is finally accepted from the makers. After that, the Faraday will remain in the vicinity for at least a month, so that the cable may be tested under full working conditions. If everything is satisfactory, she will have completed that job and steam away for the next—the laying of the Rottnest telephone. Tho laying of this comparatively short length of cable across Bass Strait is an important occasion. It is an all-British job; the cable is the finest of ite kind yet made; it will link up the last of the Australian States with the whole of the telephone world, and bring Tasmania into wireless touch with Alaska. The occasion will be marked by a formal ceremony in which the Prime Minister, ' Mr. Lyons, will officially open tho service. |